2'>«» S. VII. Mar. 5. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



207 



A celebrated archaeologist of the last century had tried, 

 but in vain, to decipher this inscription. Another savant 

 had proposed to read ievkv as the Celtic for Jesus. Re- 

 cently it has been thought that the mysterious name 

 lEVRV might mean son, and the inscription doikos sego- 

 MAKi lEVRV ALisANV was interpreted Doiros Segomari 

 Jilius Alesianus ; but the ■ position of the word in other 

 epigraphs was totally inconsistent with such a meaning, 

 and we believe with M. de Belloguet, that it really corre- 

 sponds to the Latin verb' dicavit, as it will appear from a 

 consideration of the Avignon inscription which we sub- 

 join : — 



" CErOMAPOC 

 OYIAAONEOC 

 TOOYTIOYC 

 NAMAYCATIC 

 eiOJPOYBHAH 

 CAMICOCIN 

 NEMIITON." 



These six lines may be thus understood : " Segoniarus, 

 the son of Ouilloneus (tooutious? magistrate? etymol. 

 Celtic, Tiid, Tuedd, country, people; Armoric, Tud, or 

 Tut, plur. Tudou; Irish, Tuath, Tuith), of Nismes has 

 dedicated (eiupov, a coftupt aorist from Upoio-w) this temple 

 to Belisama. 



The few remarks we have made on this part of the 

 subject can give but very little idea of the great interest 

 Avhich belongs to our author's researches, and we can 

 only say that the attentive study of the Ethnogenie Gau- 

 loise will richly repay those who devote to it some of their 

 time. 



Next to the readings supplied by monumental inscrip- 

 tions, M. de Belloguet examines the words and phrases 

 known as the formulae of Marcellus Burdigalensis, and 

 consisting of a string of barbarous expressions strung to- 

 gether, and the uttering of which, combined with certain 

 ceremonies, was said to remove various diseases. Thus, a 

 person suffering from tooth-ache should repeat seven 

 times, on Tuesdays or Thursda3-s, the formula Argidam 

 margidam sturgidani. For an inflammation in the eye, 

 the patient must cover the diseased -organ with three 

 fingers of his left hand, spit three times, and repeat three 

 times the words Rira Rica soro. 



The German philologist Grimm had already asserted 

 the Celtic origin of the words introduced in these for- 

 mulas, and M. de Belloguet adopts this view of the case. 

 At the Same time it will be seen, by a reference to the 

 volume now under consideration, that identification of 

 every word belonging to these whimsical formulas is out 

 of the question, and that here, too, we are left in most 

 cases to mere suppositions. M. Pictet translates Rira rica 

 soro by Come, come, evil ; i. e. Come out of my eye, 

 ascribing the first two words to the verb Roichim, to 

 come ; preterit, Riach. Soro, according to the same au- 

 thority, is derived from Saor, evil, pain. The repetition 

 Rira, rica, is similar to the Greek ^evye, <j>evy€, or to the 

 Latin fuge, fuge. This explanation is plausible and na- 

 tural. 



So, for the other one we have quoted : Argidam, margi- 

 dam, stwgidam. Pictet reads it argi dam, maigi dum, stiirgi 

 dam, and recognises three imperatives : drive away the 

 pain, curse the pain, dissipate the pain. Argi, from the 

 verb nirgim, I chase, I carry away ; Margi, from mairgim 

 (for Mairgnigliim, from mairg, pain), I lament, I deplore, 

 therefore I curse ; Sturgi, from stroighim or stroichim, I 

 remove, I take away ; jDamh, suffering, pain. 



We regret to say that no other of the Marcelline for- 

 mula is susceptible of being so readily interpreted. 

 After thus collecting and analysing all the Celtic words 

 which he meets with, M. de' Belloguet classifies them 

 afresh, and draws a few natural conclusions. We find, 



in the first place, that our Celtic glossary contains only 

 one word belonging to the Aquitani. Cisalpine Gaul 

 claims twenty-five ; the Belgaj, eleven ; Britanny, twelve ; 

 the Galatae, ten; the Ligures, three; and the Alpine 

 tribes, ten. 



A second table subdivides the 321 words into seven 

 divisions, according to the various Celtic idioms to which 

 they seem respectively to refer. 



I. » Words referring more particularly to the Kymrlc 

 dialects: 63. 

 ^ Words referring more particularly to the Gaelic ; 

 40. 

 11. Words belonging both to the Kymric and to the 

 Gaelic: 184. 



III. Words which have not yet been identified : 12. 



IV. Words derived from proper names ; 3. 

 V. Words of Teutonic origin : 5. 



VI. Words of Greek origin : 2. 

 VII. Words belonging to the Basque dialect: (proba- 

 bly) 2. 

 From all these details it will appear, we hope, that M. 

 de Belloguet's treatise is quite an event in the history of 

 comparative grammar, and the publication of the second 

 part of it must be anxiously expected bj' those students 

 who have duly appreciated the importance of the portion 

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